


Some nights we're choking on the words

by vivaldis_lover



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Day 4 - Freedom, First Kiss, Love Confessions, M/M, Post-Canon, Sheith Month 2017, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-11 03:08:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11705544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivaldis_lover/pseuds/vivaldis_lover
Summary: In which Keith, free from his fears, finally gathers the courage necessary and tells Shiro how he feels about him





	Some nights we're choking on the words

**Author's Note:**

> I gave in and went for a song title. The song is Never look away, by Vienna Teng (check her out, she's amazing). Aaaanyway, this is the first time I write something about Sheith, hope it turned out good, or at least decent. Hope you enjoy it!

It was finally over. The war, the Galra Empire, Zarkon, Haggar, Lotor, they were all defeated and long gone. Everyone was back on Earth, the universe didn’t need them anymore. Lance and Hunk had gone back to their families, Pidge was reunited with her brother, and Keith…

Keith was back at the shack. There was still one thing left to do for him. One last trial to overcome.

It was getting darker. He sat on the porch, an unpleasant knot twisting in his stomach, as he waited for the sun to disappear. He was not used anymore to that kind of stillness. His instinct told him to stay alert, that a threat could appear at any moment. He hated that. Before the war with the Galra, he loved how quiet he felt surrounded by nature. It would have probably taken a while to get that feeling back.

He heard the faint sound of a motorcycle approaching in the distance. He couldn’t understand the direction the sound came from, but he knew exactly who was coming. He told him to.

A few minutes later, Shiro was parking his motorcycle in front of the shack. He took off the helmet and grinned at Keith.

“How about a ride?” proposed Shiro. “Like in the old days?”

Keith smirked and nodded, then went to the back of the shack, to turn on the hoverbike. He tried to calm down the frenetic beating of his heart. He had no reason to be that nervous. This was not the worst thing he had to face, not after the war. And he trusted Shiro. He trusted him to treat him gently even in the case of rejection.

He just couldn’t hide it anymore.

He had always thought it was a family he was craving. In a way it was true, and he had found a family in the other paladins, but when he stood close to Shiro, when Shiro looked at him and encouraged him, he felt a nagging pain, a hurtful reminder that something was still missing. Something tugged his sleeve and told him, _this isn’t right. This isn’t enough_.

And then he had finally realized why.

He was in love with him.

And if he wanted to get rid of that pain, the first step was to tell Shiro how he felt about him.

The familiar sound of the hoverbike filled his ears and brought him back to the Garrison days, when he and Shiro sometimes snuck out and drove through the desert for hours, taking turns at the wheel, screaming into the night. The sense of freedom he had felt in those moments was invaluable.

He wanted that back. Even just for one time.

He brought the hoverbike in front of the shack, where Shiro was still waiting. Keith jumped off and gestured to him to take the wheel.

“You drive,” he said.

Shiro tilted his head, but didn’t protest. “Is there a reason why you want me to?”

“No.”

They jumped on the vehicle and drove away.

The light of the evening turned the sand and the rocks bright red and they kept on driving until the sky was completely dark.

Shiro hadn’t drove like this in a long time. He felt like the person he was before the Kerberos mission, when he was still the Garrison’s golden boy, the ace pilot. He made quick, sharp turns between the dunes and the rocks, letting his instinct guide him.

Keith’s arms around his waist felt incredibly heavy. Lately, every little touch happening between them turned the air electric. Now that it was finally only him and Keith, it was clear that there were still some things left unsaid between them.

He had been so unsure whether to tell Keith or not. But if there was a perfect moment to tell Keith what has been on his mind (in his heart) for the last few months, it was now. Doing in it before was not an option. Keith was struggling with his own feelings and it was clear to everyone. So he had just hidden everything, he had buried his love.

When he looked up, he saw the stars covering the night sky. He had lost count of how many times they had come out there, stargazing and finding the constellations.

He admired the Milky Way and it was like the first time he saw it.

Keith looked over Shiro’ shoulder to observe the landscape and he loosened the grip on Shiro’s waist to turn his head around more easily. That desert was a point fixed in time, where he and Shiro could meet time and time again, and even after everything that happened, every time they met there it was always like nothing had changed. Like they hadn’t changed.

In a rush of courage he stood up and put his feet on the seat, leaning against Shiro’s back to keep his balance. He then extended his arms and threw back his head, to feel the air hitting his skin. A long time had passed since the last time he had felt this free. He let out a howl, overwhelmed by that sensation. The smell of the desert, so familiar and so dear to him, filled his nose and his head.

He looked down at Shiro’s head, remembering all the time spent holding on to his back, feeling like the balance he found there was not only physical, but also mental. His touch-starved skin had blessed every touch. Just hugging Shiro from behind made him feel a warmth he had never experienced before.

It was now or never.

“Takashi!”

Keith had to scream to be heard by Shiro.

“Yes?!”

“I love you!” he screamed and started laughing.

He howled again, before sitting down, carefully. Then he threw his arms around Shiro’s waist, high on adrenaline.

“I love you,” he whispered in his ear. “I loved you before the Kerberos mission, I loved you when I found you again, I love you now that everything is over. You keep me grounded, you are the anchor of my life, a force I didn’t know I needed.”

He paused and fixed his eyes on the horizon.

“I don’t know how you feel about me,” he said, loud enough for Shiro to hear him. “But I wanted you to know, _brother_ is not a strong enough word to define how I feel about you. You’re more than that. So much more.”

He waited for a reaction, but Shiro didn’t say anything for a while. Keith started to get nervous. A lack of reaction was worse than anything. What was Shiro waiting for?

“Don’t misunderstand this silence,” said Shiro, as if he had read his mind. “All I want to do now is kiss you, Keith. And I’m looking for a good spot to stop and do it.”

Keith buried his face in Shiro’s back, a stupid grin on his mouth and a desire to cry with joy.

“I love you too, Keith.”

Keith gripped Shiro’s jacket tightly, laughing.

“I love you, Takashi,” he repeated. “I love you. I love you.”

It had taken him so long to come to terms with his feelings and how intense his emotions could be. Freeing himself from his fears had been challenging, but that effort was now paying off. He thought back to all the times the pain in chest had reminded him that something was missing. That pain was finally gone.

Shiro stopped on the top of a dune and they admired the sight, before hopping down the hoverbike.

Keith was at his wits end. Shiro had just told him that he wanted to kiss him, but was he supposed to do something before that? Did he have to say something, to warn him of what he was going to do, or he could just grab his face and kiss him?

Then Shiro, who was previously watching the landscape and admiring the sky, turned to him. On his face it was painted the most loving expression Keith had ever seen in his entire life.

“I’m sorry I never told you before, Keith,” he said. “You seemed too confused at the time. And I was too scared we wouldn’t make it. I didn’t see the point in telling you how I feel about you, if I was not gonna make it out alive.”

Keith threw his arms around his neck and hugged him. “Don’t say that. The war is over now. They don’t matter anymore. I don’t need to know what you were thinking. I only care that you are here now.”

He didn’t want to remember how helpless and hopeless he had felt during the war. Not in that moment. Not now that they were finally free.

Slowly, Shiro’s hand started caressing Keith’s back, while the other rested on his hip. That touch alone was enough to make him shiver. He wanted more.

“Do you still want to kiss me?” he whispered in Shiro’s ear, with a husky voice that he barely recognized.

“I still want to,” said Shiro.

“Then do it.”

He didn’t have to say that twice. With an urgency that Keith had never seen from him, Shiro put his hands on his neck and kissed him, a deep, needy kiss. In response, Keith grabbed him by the collar, to keep him as close as possible. He was not going to let him go, not anymore. He had lost him too many times.

He wanted to take everything in. His warmth, his breath, his touch.

The knot that was bothering him before melted, finally. The overwhelming sensations were making him feel weak. He had know emotions this strong, but only negative. It was the first time that he felt so much joy, untainted, and his mind was turning into a confused blur as it tried to process it. He had to restrain himself from passing his hands all over Shiro’s body, like he wanted to make sure that he was really there.

Shiro’s lips were chapped and dry and they tasted like the desert. His hands burned on Keith’s cheeks. There had been a lot of things Shiro had not expected. He hadn’t expected to escape from the Galra. He hadn’t expected to become a paladin. He had not expected to fall for Keith, so hard that he had become his reason to push through everything, just to spend another day by his side.

And now Keith was there, and he loved him, and after a long, long time Shiro finally felt in the right place and, even just for a moment, free from his demons.


End file.
